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Rodman Philbrick grew up on the New England coast, where he worked as a longshoreman and boat builder. For many years he wrote mysteries and detective novels. The Private Eye Writers of America nominated two of his T.D.Stash series as best detective novel and then selected Philbricks Brothers & Sinners as Best Novel in 1993. Writing under the pen name William R. Dantz he has explored the near-future worlds of genetic engineering and hi-tech brain control in books like Hunger, Pulse, The Seventh Sleeper. And Nine Levels Down.

Inspired by the life of a boy who lived a few blocks away, he wrote Freak The Mighty, the award-winning young-adult novel, which has been translated into numerous languages and is now read in schools throughout the world. The book was adapted to the screen in 1998 as The Mighty, starring Sharon Stone, Gillian Anderson, James Gandolfini, Kieran Culkin, and Elden Henson.

Philbrick, a screenwriter as well as a novelist, is the author of a number of novels for young readers, including The Fire Pony, Max the Mighty, REM World, The Last Book In The Universe, The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds and The Young Man And The Sea. His recent novels for adults include Dark Matter, Coffins, and Taken. He and his wife divide their time between Maine and the Florida Keys.